Spline Doctorshttp://splinedoctors.com
Animators by day. Teachers by night.Mon, 07 Jan 2019 15:30:44 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1AnimBot – Spline Cast with Alan Camilohttp://splinedoctors.com/2019/01/a-real-spline-doctor/
http://splinedoctors.com/2019/01/a-real-spline-doctor/#commentsMon, 07 Jan 2019 14:52:46 +0000Dr. Gordonhttp://splinedoctors.com/?p=1590During my 20 years at Pixar, one of the things besides the great stories and great animation were the great tools for animation. Menv, now called Presto is the proprietary software that is used at Pixar and it has some powerful tools. One of the most being the spline editor. Now being on the outside I harken back to the days of using that software but have found a set of tools that feels a lot like some of the tools we had at Pixar. They are called AnimBot created by Alan Camilo. Alan is a feature animator and programmer. He found the same issue with the tools he was working with, so he created tools, then the more advanced AnimBot. I had the opportunity to sit down (via video conference) and talk to him about his new set of tools that comes out January 7th! I think the entire animation community should give him thanks because the existing tools that Maya has to offer have not really changed for animation in a long time. This is true especially for studios that don’t have programmers working on custom tool sets for Maya like Disney and Sony. Alan is making tools that not only work, but are intuitive and the list will keep going. I hope to help him get the word out about his tools that fit so nicely inside of Maya. I know as an animator, I can’t wait to get on the box and Animate!. DOWNLOAD them here:

]]>http://splinedoctors.com/2019/01/a-real-spline-doctor/feed/3Adam Burke – A Pixar Legendhttp://splinedoctors.com/2018/10/adam-burke-a-pixar-legend/
http://splinedoctors.com/2018/10/adam-burke-a-pixar-legend/#commentsTue, 09 Oct 2018 21:35:49 +0000Dr. Gordonhttp://splinedoctors.com/?p=1584Adam Burke passed away on October 8th 2018. I was a close friend to Adam over the years at Pixar Animation studios. When Adam showed up on the film Incredibles it was a breath of fresh air to have someone else that was from “back east”. The industry is small and we knew alot of the same people. Adam was always a guy that I could go into and chat with about life. There never was a day when I remember him being negative. It really was amazing because I was sometimes jaded by this or that and Adam would set me straight, telling me.. “Gordon, I’ve been on the outside” I aint ever leaving this place.” He was right. He was right about so many things. He did so many things for the animation department at Pixar and people in general. He started the hospital visit program at Pixar. He was the resident Bar keep. A guy who would always pour a drink or make you laugh. He had a voice that would shatter the earth…Singing at the stage on a Friday. He was always there on working Saturdays cooking breakfast with his son or making the best bloody Mary’s for the crew even if he was not on the film! He and I taught the interns at Pixar one year and he made it one of the most fun experiences ever. He and I had a famous war at pixar where we would trade photoshops and fake shots in dailies. He went through the trouble of having someone model me so he could put my face on a cup in Finding Dory. These are the types of things that really are the stuff of legend. He added so much to the culture of Pixar and that culture is part of what makes the films so great there. He took an interest in teaching and even helping me with this site that used to be sucha beacon for so many people that wanted to learn about animation. One our best “Spline Casts” was with Brad Bird and Ed Catmull. Adam helped line those legends up. http://splinedoctors.com/Podcasts/BradBird.m4a

Adam was also a spectacular animator, animating scenes that you remember in the many films he worked on. I hope to post a link to his amazing work. Adam also was the keeper of my old secret room the Love Lounge. He hosted so many people through the years and kept the lounge in tact. I could not have thought of a better person, because he was a gracious host. When I think about the animators that we read about in the old books about Disney and Warners, Adam is one of those “characters” that made me want to become an animator. His attitude was that he was the luckiest guy to have his job and all the things he did for people made it show. I will miss you so much Adam. If there is a heaven, then I know Adam is sitting by some sort of Tiki Bar up there, having his favorite drinks, a martini with a twist. May we all raise a glass to a person that affected so many. I miss you buddy.

Happy New Year! I wanted to thank everyone for following this site, if anyone does ever still go here… Most likely some may come to dig into the old articles from years gone past when we were all younger and had the time to post tidbits of learning about animation. Well, I am writing to ask if anyone is interested in taking over this site and passing on the knowledge you have gleaned to the next generation. Splinedoctors has been a great way for me to meet people and also I have heard many people talk to me about how it helped them. If it was only one, thats enough. Its all about continued growth. If you are interested, please contact me at splinedr@gmail.com

I am starting a new chapter in my life. After 20 amazing years and 4 months at Pixar, this year I decided to leave and take on a new position at a new animation company. More on that later. Thank you as always for visiting this site and stay tuned for some news and again thank you. -Andrew

Its really no secret anymore that I have had a few offices that had secret rooms at Pixar… I’ve never really talked about it much, mostly people have told their own version of the story…Mostly mythology. In the next couple of posts Ill try to speak on why it happened and what the real reasons were…

Well, it all started when I was a kid, as most stories do… Something imprinted with me… My brother Ken, always had the most amazing club houses…One was in a old ice shed out back. He had fur up there, a drawer of baseball cards, a chest of toys and trinkets.. Of course I was never allowed. I did sneak up when he was away, but I loved it there. Being in a place I was not supposed to be was the key. A hiding place… When your a kid, you make forts, you try to construct things, well because its fun! My brother had the shed, the attic, a bush that was a three story apartment etc…Why should it be any different at work? My brother inspired me , or rather as he would say it, I copied him. Copy Cat, he would often call me… I’ll admit, I did like what my older brothers were doing. A kid makes the kid version of what the older kids do…

So The Love Lounge, was the place at Pixar I “found” When I moved in, there was simply a key in an air vent and I crawled in as any kid would do… Ironically, on the other side of the building there is the same door, but for some reason it never was seen as a place to have drinks and hang out… Animators are a special breed. Basically people that still somehow wanted to keep playing with their action figures…and make them come alive… The natural thing was to do the same thing. I strung up some lights, Bought some airplane bottles of liquor and the next thing I know, Im sending out invitations to my fellow animators to have a drink… Posters start going up…I was inspired by Shawshank redemption. The character in that film had a really cool Cell with a poster of Raquel Welch… The place started turning into a 50′s lounge…We were all so young and it was fun trying to hide from the Brass. One day, while on the Film Finding Nemo, I was supposed to be in a review. They came to my office and was coming out of the door… Caught red handed by Director Andrew Stanton. He looked inside and noticed that I had a sort of Snoopy Dog house. Snoopy’s dog house was also something that as a kid I always wondered about.. He had so much stuff in there… I knew I wasn’t going to be fired, but maybe get in trouble for having a chocolate martini in my hands while a bunch of animators crawled, or rolled out laughing… The next thing I know, John Lassiter is coming by, Then with Steve Jobs… They pretty much loved it… Steve signed the wall: This is why we built this building…The next year or three I met too many famous people to count. Some of my hero’s, So many actors, Musicians, Billionaires, Princes, you name it.. I met them… And had some pretty interesting conversations inside of an airvent.. hey would sign the wall and crawl out. That part was always awkward… If I had only had a butt cam…

One of the big things I learned, and that we all learned.. Don’t force fun. Its up to the employees to push on the culture to make things happen. Don’t wait for the HR team to set up a mixer. The people are who the company is. What I love about Pixar is that people are always trying to outdo each other. Whether its their office, a talk, a party, tools, anything, this is the stuff that makes things interesting.The big issue with a lot of companies out there is that you become afraid of asking… You start thinking that if you ask, they will say no.. Most of the time they may… Most of the great things that happen are spontaneous…Built on some crazy perception…

Next week Ill continue some of the story of the Love Lounge and talk bit about the Lucky 7 and some other things that may be of interest…

Gestures have always been facinating to me inside and out of the animation industry. I remember the lightbulb going on in my head when I first heard Glen Keane talk about how he looked at gestures. Never before did I put two and two together in the way he did. Now, with the advent of so many classes, online schools the info is out there. I recently did a class on Lynda.com. Its part of a series of classes where I will cover the craft more than software specific tools. Many of the learnings are free. Here are a bunch of clips for your viewing pleasure. Thank you all for still reading Spline Doctors. Please suggest things for the future and I will try to get them up. I heard people are interested in a Finding Dory Round Table.

]]>http://splinedoctors.com/2016/09/gesture-here-gesture-there-but-dont-gesture-everywhere/feed/8ALIENS !http://splinedoctors.com/2016/07/1558/
http://splinedoctors.com/2016/07/1558/#commentsMon, 18 Jul 2016 21:47:33 +0000Dr.Natehttp://splinedoctors.com/?p=1558On this day – July 18, 1986 – ALIENS was released into U.S. theaters. This eagerly anticipated follow up to the original ALIEN film from 1979 not only delivered great entertainment, but ended up raising the bar on what a sequel could be. If you have not seen this, borrow it, rent it, watch it any way you can ! After, you can then read this great post from ScriptShadow pointing out 10 reasons why this movie works so well from a storytelling point of view. This is a great breakdown. Enjoy the read.

A while back I did a post on stock rigs. After seeing many reels lately, I have to say something about that very topic. Something I found inspiring from a recent talk I heard was the presenter talking about how he felt about where students should fall when creating a reel or film for that matter. What was said was this:

“We encourage the students to have work that is not too artsy nor too much on the industry bias.”

This is not the exact thing that was said but the gist of it is. That brings the question for students making a demo reel. What is the good balance between art and putting work on your reel that is good for potential employers to see? I think it really depends on the stage you are at. For example, a 3rd year student looking for an internship might put too much work on a reel in order to submit for an internship. If your graduating it makes sense to show a range of work but to express your artistic ideas. I personally love seeing a different take on something. I remember a reel that came in by Carlo Vogel where he animated an entire film with clothes. I thought, what an amazing idea. He had me from the beginning. When I see the reel that has yet another human rig doing a a line of dialogue from a popular film, I feel like some schools may as well be teaching plumbing or electronics. Where is the character? Where is the spark? What is interesting about it? Then there are school where I think, does anyone here really understand how to animate? Too much art, no principles, no design…

Here are a few principles for demo reels

1) Hook your viewer – Really open your reel with something interesting and that you feel is one of your strongest pieces.

2) Quality not quantity - You don’t need every single thing on your reel to prove you can animate. Just put the best pieces.

3) Be original – Please avoid stock rigs…Unless you alter them… The industry knows each one and seeing one tells the viewer, I am vanilla and have no original ideas beyond this gray rig on a grid.

4) End strong – Leave the viewer with a good taste in their mouth.

5) Show you have good ideas… - Its not about Polish, Its about good ideas and strong acting for character animation. And Story! Story for all the things you do… Can you tell a good story?

6) Be your harshest critic. - This is the hardest. Its really hard to know where your at. Have someone good tell you where you are at. Its better to know the truth than to think your work is a 9 when its a 3.

Its been a while since I went to an animated film feeling like I needed to get back to my desk and animate harder! After seeing what our brothers and sisters down at Disney Feature Animation are doing, this was my feeling. Whats even better was keeping an eye on my kids and hearing them talk about it. Two kid thumbs up. I think the movie is great and as an animator I really just love the work and was amazed at how wonderful the animation was. Appeal is off the charts and the acting is fun. If your an animator, or someone who just loves a fun film, go see it. Way to go ! Amazing work.